The disproportionate incarceration of young people of color and the achievement gap are linked; the common denominator is the vast proportion of students kicked out of class as a form of school punishment. In its six-month investigation into the School to Prison Pipeline, The Skanner News has collected reports, statistics, interviews and video documenting the growing movement by families and communities to keep their kids in school and on track.

Tamberlee Tarver's son Camron has been suspended from his North Portland school nine times since last October. Camron has a short list of disabilities impacting his coordination and his ability to focus – and now is being treated for an anxiety disorder. A kindergartner, Camron is five years old. "I'm currently looking for a therapist to undo some of the damage that's been done so far – because my son's turned into a whole different person," Tarver says. Who knew such little kids could be kicked out of school? But a 2005 study by Yale University found that in Oregon, preschoolers are expelled at twice the rate of school-aged kids ... Click to read more

Over the generations, finding a way to turn around zero-tolerance school discipline policies and other factors that push Black kids out of schools and into the law enforcement system has proven a tough nut to crack .... Click to read more

More than 70 percent of students involved in school-related arrests or cases referred to law enforcement were Hispanic or African-American, according to an Education Department report that raises questions about whether students of all races are disciplined evenhandedly in America's schools ... Click to read more